Valencia see's yet another iteration of
Adrian Newey's / Red Bull's vision of this years ultimate concept.
This version of the Sidepod / Exhaust / Tunnel concept is the most
expansive version to date, encompassing much more bodywork and floor
area in order to create a airflow caption area above the diffuser.
It's no secret that the Milton Keynes based outfit have been confused
that their original iteration of this concept didn't work as planned.
Red Bull have attempted numerous versions now in order to attain the
effect they first desired at the start of the season, whilst the rest
of the field are seemingly converging on the McLaren style exhaust
outlet in order to achieve more rear end downforce. The idea of having this 'false' floor is to further create additional rear end downforce and help toward create a sealing effect.

We can see from the picture above that
the exit slope of the sidepod has been increased in length this is to
not only accommodate the extended tunnel section but also allow for
the McLaren-esque exhuast channel that’s carved into the bodywork.
This whole section is a multi faceted airflow conundrum with airflow
interacting in many differing ways. In the picture below I have
marked out how this flow is destined to work.

Please be aware this is an
approximation to further help understand how the flows work and
interact

The blue airflow
shown coming around the side of the sidepod is destined for the first
portion of the Tunnel (As the strake inside the tunnel separates the
flow patterns) The strake is there to provide a boundary which
creates a higher pressure region, this in effect speeds up the flow
either side of the strake and encourages the first element of flow
and in turn helps with the second channel of flow which is
highlighted in a bolder blue colour.

Lastly as the
Tunnel finishes there is a small gap between the sidepod's edge and
the vertical floor strake. This area will act like a funnel and
converge with the the downwash flow (orange) & exhaust flow (Red)

The green area
depicts the last area of airflow for the floor and one that becomes
more neutral due to the airflow being robbed by the Tunnel ahead of
it.

The McLaren style
exhaust channel (Airflow shown in red) helps to guide the airflow
from the downwash (Airflow shown in orange) whilst speeding up the
airflow of the Tunnel beneath

Moving inbound the
flow converges with the airflow coming through the engine cover and
exits just below the beam wing and above the diffuser. As we can see
from @Khan_F1 's pictures above the exit here has changed from the
Montreal spec in order to utilise the additional airflow at exit.

As we can see from
the image above Red Bull were utilising a hole in the floor above the
starter hole to expell air passing across the floor. This hole is
now encompassed by the larger engine cover outlet in order to further
funnel the tunnel flow through this area of the floor.

As I write this I'm
still unable to find a rearward shot of the RB8 depicting the
Diffuser area clear enough to see if there is a difference in design
ethos without the tyre squirt ducts. The current diffuser however
can be seen to be much more like the Lotus design with outer portion
of the diffuser pointing outwards. This helps manage the outer
portion of the diffuser flow which in turn manages the effects of
tyre squirt towards the central channel of flow.

That was the problem with the original design David. During cornering, being off throttle meant a disturbance in a flow that affected the cars balance by fluctuating downforce levels.The new version is a mixture of the Tunnel and Ferrari Acer Duct which allows the first part of the Tunnel to be above the 50mm maximum height.

Whilst I'm trying to keep atop of the blog you may have noticed of late that there is less content appearing. For those of you that haven't realised, most of my work has now been moved over to Motorsport.com where I'm working with Giorgio Piola.

I'm still doing the technical image gallery for each GP with the continued support of friend of the site Sutton Images. However, as always my time is limited and so this might not be updated as quickly as it once was, so keep checking back.

As some of you may have found out already I'm also working with the Missed Apex crew on their podcast from time-to-time, either doing race reviews or dedicated 'Tech Time' shows.

I've embedded the latest version of the podcast below and will update this a frequently as I appear. However, please head over to Itunes if you want it to appear in your player when episodes are available. The show is great to work on and has a great lineup of 'regulars' but has also enticed some bigger names recently too, with Will Buxton and Bradley Philpot on shows during the summer break.

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